MUSIC AND THEATER ARTS

Music and Theater Arts continues to afford students at MIT the opportunity to
experience the unique language and process of the arts in their integrity. The
social and moral contexts of human experience also informs all our curricular
and co-curricular offerings. Faculty and teaching staff help students
understand art's particular demand for rigor and discipline, its
non-quantitative standards of excellence and beauty. A strong, comprehensive
program in both Music and Theater Arts, encompassing history, theory and
performance--taught by a faculty and staff of the highest caliber whose ongoing
professional activities inform their teaching--has been and will continue to be
our hallmark. Because it is comprehensive, the academic program serves as a
base for those who have the talent and desire to continue their education in
Music or Theater beyond the undergraduate level. The Section also affirms its
commitment to diversity within its disciplines and among its staff.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR

The year began with Professor Peter Child taking over as Section head
for a three year term. Assistant Professor Janet Sonenberg became Director of
Theater Arts, a position she began as Acting Director the previous semester
when Professor Alan Brody became Associate Provost for the Arts. October saw a
performance of the dramatic oratorio Reckoning Time: A Song of Walt
Whitman, with music by Professor Child, libretto by Professor Brody and
conducted by Senior Lecturer John Oliver. The performance was in honor of
Senior Lecturer Oliver upon his retirement from MIT. In December Music and
Theater Arts hosted a successful visit by the Corporation Visiting Committee.
December also saw the first performance of MITCAN, the MIT African Performance
Ensemble, under the direction of Assistant Professor James Makubuya. In
February the Sections new Harpsichord, from the premier builder Eric Herz, was
officially dedicated in Killian Hall with the premier performance of things
that flow, a work by Christopher Adler, MIT `94. The Endellion String
Quartet, in residency in April of 1995, returned for another successful week of
performances and master classes this past April. The chamber ensemble SONOS,
comprised of Bayla Keyes, violin; Professor Marcus Thompson, viola;
Andrés Diáz, `cello; and Senior Lecturer David Deveau, piano,
continued their collaboration with another well received performance in
April.

HONORS AND AWARDS

Professor Ellen Harris received the Class of 1949 Professorship Chair.
Professor Lowell Lindgren became a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT and
received the Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award from Harvard University. Theater
Arts Lecturer Michael Ouellette received the Gyorgy Kepes Fellowship Prize for
excellence in the creative arts. Grant Ho `97 (Minor in Music and receipient of
the Advanced Music Performance Scholarship) received the Louis Sudler prize and
Solomon Douglas `97 (Major in Music) received a Wiesner Award.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

Enrollments in Music subjects dropped slightly this year to 1268 while
Theater climbed slightly to 407 for a total of 1673. Thanks to a major gift
from Brad and Dorothea Endicott, work is well under way on the renovation of
space in the MIT Museum building to accommodate our burgeoning World Music
Program. The World Music Room will house our Gamelan and African instrument
collection and be a combined rehearsal and performance space for the Gamelan,
the African Performance Ensemble (MITCAN) and MITHAS (MIT Heritage of the Arts
of Southeast Asia). Funded by the Council for the Arts at MIT an evening of
music by Professor and Section Head Peter Child was presented in February
featuring performances by three of the Sections Performance Scholarship
receipients, Asher Davison, Susan Shi and Grant Ho. The MIT Symphony Orchestra
under the direction of Professor Emeritus and Senior Lecturer David Epstein had
a noteworthy season of concerts featuring MIT student soloists and the music of
MIT student composers.

Theater Arts faculty and visiting scholars were active as directors of major
student productions. Scott T. Cummings, Visiting Scholar with Shakespeare and
Company, directed Two Gentlemen of Verona in October. Lecturer
Ouellette directed Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing with The
Dramashop for its IAP production in January. Tina Packer, Visiting Scholar with
Shakespeare and Company, directed The Life and Death of King John in
March. Associate Provost Brody directed Playwrights in Performance in two
evenings of one-act plays by MIT student playwrights.

ACHIEVEMENTS

The level of productivity by our faculty remained high. Professor
Thompson toured extensively with the Boston Chamber Music Society and performed
at numerous festivals in Alaska, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico. Associate
Professor Evan Ziporyn premiered his new work Amok for 25 piece Balinese
Gamelan in April. He also toured with Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Steve
Reich Ensemble in Italy, Israel and the U.S. Associate Professor Martin Marks
saw publication of his book Music and the Silent Film:Contexts and Case
Studies 1895-1924 by Oxford University Press. Professor Marks also
performed his own piano score for the rarely seen Russian film Nail in the
Boot at the Harvard Film Archive and performed the original piano score for
the German silent film Metropolis at a seminar on film music in Los
Angeles, California. Professor Harris became Associate Editor of Musical
Quarterly, presented 3 papers at Aston Magna Academy and in May made her solo
debut with the Boston Pops Orchestra. Professor Lindgren delivered a paper at
the Internationales Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium at the Göttinger,
Germany, Händel-Festspiele 1997. Senior Lecturer Deveau had a second
successful season as Director of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Professor
Child was a featured composer at the Computer Arts Festival in Padua, Italy, in
April where the Italian new music group Interensemble performed his
Ensemblance for chamber ensemble with computer generated tape. This
coincided with the release of the groups CD recording of Professor Child's work
on the Rivoalto label. Institue Professor John Harbison conducted performances
of Handel's L'Allegro and Il Penseroso ed il Moderato with the
Mark Morris Dance Company in Los Angeles, California. He conducted at the
Dallapiccola Festival at Smith College and a performance with Dawn Upshaw at
Carnegie Hall in April. Two new works by Professor Harbison were premiered this
year, Emerson, with the Cantata Singers in Boston and Olympic Dances
with the Pilobolus Dance Company in Athens, Georgia. Other works received
performances by the Baltimore, Milwaukee and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras.
Professor Sonenberg presented a paper at the International Theater University
Association Congress in Montreal on Dreamwork Process, the research for her
book in progress Threshold of the Unconscious. Senior Lecturer Pamela
Wood had solo performances with the Concord Choral Society, the Neponset Choral
Society and Opera Longy. She was also an adjudicator for the Leontyne Price
Vocal Arts Competition at New England Conservatory of Music. Lecturer Mark
Harvey saw the release of his third CD Psalms and Elegies containing
four of his compositions performed by his group the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra.

PERSONNEL

Professor Ziporyn received tenure, Professor Sonenberg was promoted to
Associate Professor without tenure and Lecturers George Ruckert and Michael
Ouellette were both appointed as Senior Lecturers, all effective on July 1,
1997. Lecturer Elena Ruehr was reappointed for a three year term also effective
July 1. Instructor Thomas DeFrantz completed his Ph.D and will be appointed
Assistant Professor of Theater Arts July 1. Senior Lecturer Beth Soll leaves
the department as of July 1 and will join the faculty of the University of
California at Santa Barbara.

More information about Music and Theater Arts can be found on the World Wide
Web at the following URL: http://mit.edu/mta/www/